Hi Davey,
I’ve recently gotten heavily into working out, and your blog has been a great source of information. I go to the gym five days a week and have broken up the days into two kinds of workouts - biceps/back/legs on one day and chest/triceps/shoulders on another. This was a good way for me to start, and while it’s toning my muscles, I’m not seeing the growth that I would like to see. With that said, what sort of regime would you suggest and how should I break up the muscle groups throughout the week?
From,
Jack
Dear Jack,
A few things.
First things first. To target muscle growth (rather than toning and definition), ensure that you are training in a way that encourages actual muscle growth. This would require:
- Doing weighted exercises (i.e., using dumbbells, barbells, body weight or anything else that applies resistance)
- Performing a low number of reps at heavy weights (you should be fatigued in 10 reps or less)
- Experiencing muscle failure on your last rep (you should be unable to do one additional rep - if you can do another rep, then you should increase the resistance)
- Pushing yourself to higher levels of resistance (i.e., constantly progressing to heavier weights, etc.) and trying new things - like the P90x workout.
- Following a proper, high-protein diet
- Allowing your body sufficient rest (and never training a muscle that is still sore from a previous workout)
After following the above guidelines, you may wish to restructure your workout. Currently, you have two different types of workout days - and on each day, you are training three different muscle groups. Since we know that shorter workouts are wiser (strength training workouts that exceed 45 - 60 minutes are to be avoided), the result is that you are hitting all three muscle groups lightly. You have a lot of muscles to train in a little amount of time. If, instead, you focused in on one or two muscle groups per workout, you could really fatigue and work those muscles at a much deeper and more effective level.
While you currently have two different types of workout days, I have found that four different types of workout days is the most effective training experience for me. I do chest/forearms on on day, then biceps on another, then shoulders/back and then legs/triceps on my fourth day. I pepper my ab workouts in between. I’d encourage you to restructure your workout along those lines for enhanced results.
Love,
Davey
